An Argentine Wedding In California

My dear friend Priscilla, whom you have all gotten to know through my posts, and her sister Kelly are featured as my guest chefs for July.  Priscilla and I have known each other for most of our lives, dating back to junior high school in Pasadena, California through Broomfield/Westminster, Colorado today.  Priscilla and Kelly are both fabulous chefs and cooks.  They both inherited this trait from their beautiful mother Ana.  Ana and Kelly used to own and operate The Tea Room, located in Sierra Madre, California, where Kelly and Ana used to make all the wonderful foods from scratch everyday.  The Tea Room was often frequented by celebrities, and was well loved by everyone.  The Tea Room is still going strong, but Kelly and Ana sold the business a few years ago and now enjoy their family life even more.

The Santo family (Priscilla and Kelly’s maiden name) emigrated to Southern California from Rosario, Argentina, which is not far from Buenos Aires, many moons ago, and all but Priscilla, have made Southern California their home ever since.  The Santo family is still very proudly connected to their Argentine heritage.  Priscilla made Colorado her home a few years before I did, and believe it or not, we still live only about 10 minutes away from each other, just like when we were kids.  Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Priscilla and Kelly, the two master pastry chefs for the Santo/Perez wedding.

Priscilla and Ana, the Santo matriarch.  Te amo muchos mes Amigas!

Priscilla and Kelly’s niece Madison just got married a couple of weeks ago, at a ranch in Temecula, California.  It was a beautiful wedding with a very Argentine theme, complete with a Gaucho Grill.

Priscilla and Kelly did all the decorating, made all the cookies, the flower arrangements and the wedding cakes.  The wedding cakes!!!!!!  OMG!  They are fabulous works of art.  Priscilla and Kelly did such an amazing job on these cakes.  They were truly a labor of love.

There were three wedding cakes for this very special occasion.  Each one is a culinary work of art.  One cake was a lemon cake with an elderflower buttercream.  Yum!  Doesn’t this sound exotic?  Another cake was a chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream filling, and the third cake was a combination of a yellow cake with a dulce de leche cream filling and a banana cake with a chocolate chip buttercream filling.  Just writing about these delectable cakes has already made me gain at least 10 pounds.  I wish I was there to help celebrate, but also for the cakes.

The cake production line.  Priscilla and Kelly were very busy baking and decorating cakes.

Though they were very busy, the end results came out truly spectacular.  Look at all this attention to detail, which is a trademark of both Priscilla and Kelly.  They are culinary artists.  They think of everything, and pay so much attention to all the details, no matter how small or minute.  They both have a gift for making every event, even a simple dinner, a truly memorable moment.  This cake is decorated with fondant that looks exactly like the macrame hanging in the background.  They are both so gifted and talented.  I don’t have either the patience or the talent to make anything like this.  Hats off to both Priscilla and Kelly for such a loving tribute to their niece Madison, and also for sharing their culinary masterpieces with all of us.

I am always looking for guest chefs.  So many of you are very talented, creative chefs and/or home cooks.  I love to showcase all of your talents as well as my own creations.  Everyone is always welcome to submit their culinary masterpieces through pictures and details, with at least one picture of the chef as well.  You just never know who my next guest chef will be here at “A Jeanne in the Kitchen”.  It just could be you!